[2375/Asgard] "Homestead"

February 20, 2018, 09:46:26 PM

[Dani Slayton| Slayton Family Compound| Outskirts of New Alexandra, Asgard| Seven years before the flight of the Theurgy]

For Danielle Jessica Slayton today was a happy day because it was the first day in a long time that most of her family was going to be under one roof with Marcus coming home for some leave from his deployment aboard the James Kirk and Danny’s ship in the Ark-Royal at the Njord Shipyards to undergo a refit of it’s primary deflector.

Even though Dani was looking forward to a real family get together, the first one since the death of her father a couple of years prior, it was still going to be a slightly depressing one as three members of the family wasn’t going to be there including someone that they had honestly thought was dead but turned up alive.

Almost five years prior, her older brother Chris had left to go and find himself after he graduated from high school as their father had constantly been at Chris’ throat to follow the examples set by practically every member of their family to date which included the father who was an admiral in special operations, their mother who had retired from being a science officer to become a mother, Marcus the tactical genius, and Daniel the operations maven to say the least but Chris wasn’t having any of this and simply went to find himself...then he disappeared.

For two years the entire Slayton family mourned the death of Christopher Joseph Slayton as the universe slowly started to descend more and more into a bloody conflict with the Klingons but it stopped abruptly after Gul Skarin Dukat got the Cardassian Union to join with the Dominion and everything seemed to just go to worse…

...but then Daniel contacted the family from the Tornado, the Excelsior class cruiser that had been sent to recover the “guests” of the Klingon Empire that Gowron had obtained over the brief two year war to reveal a living ghost in the form of Chris who was being tended to in the Tornado’s sickbay to which there was much rejoicing when he came home...or there was until their father basically promptly told him that it was far past time for him to do his duty.

So Chris hit him.

In all of her young life up to that point Dani had never seen her father, the Admiral, laid out on the ground with his third oldest child standing over him with a look of utter rage in his eyes was the last thing that she’d ever thought that she would see.
Chris promptly left the house and it took several hours for their mother to track him down to convince him to come back at which point he finally did and the two men had a short conversation as their father was needed back at his duty post on Earth with a promise of a conversation about what had happened and the look of pride in her father’s eyes at Chris was something a long time in coming...but the talk never happened as Rear Admiral Andrew Janus Slayton was one of the many victims of the Breen attack on Earth as their father died at his post, gunned down by Breen assault troops at Starfleet headquarters and Chris simply left.

So it was here on Founding Day, a day to celebrate the official creation of Asgard, that Dani walked into the family room of the house to find her two oldest brothers sitting around dressed casually with drinks in their hands, talking about nothing in particular.

“You’re kidding me, she beat the shark?” Daniel asked as he sat his drink down and looked at the other man.

Marcus nodded in return, “Yeah and I can’t blame him from being distracted either because she was quite the looker, especially with those golden-green eyes of hers.” he said with a hint of a wistful smile on his face.

Daniel couldn’t help but chuckle at the look on his big brother’s face. “And did you try to ask out whatever her name was, Marc?” he asked in a teasing tone.

Marcus took a deep breath and shook his head, “No and her name is Ensign Tessa Lance, one of the Kirk’s finest fighter pilots.” he explained before taking a drink from his glass. “Besides I’m old enough to be her father.”

Daniel couldn’t help but chuckle at that, “Need I remind you that I’m older than my girlfriend?” he asked.

Marcus rolled his eyes and refused to comment to that. “I will say one thing, she was quite the sight to behold.” he added before taking another drink.

Dani rolled her eyes at the conversation, her bright green eyes moving away from the older men of the room when they caught sight of something out of place and landed on a man that stood in the doorway from the foyer that made her gasp suddenly in surprise and naturally her brothers quickly looked to her and then at the source of her gasp to which point Daniel slowly came off of the couch as he said “"Non ci credo ..." in the old tongue of the family

In the foyer dressed simply in a respectable black button down shirt and a pair of tan slacks with his shoulder length dark brown hair pulled into a ponytail was Chris. “Um, hi.” he said in an unsure voice.

Marcus got up and walked over to his younger brother and simply embraced him. “It’s been too long, fratellino.” he said as he gave him a hug before Dani ran over and threw her own arms around her favorite brother’s torso, hugging him tightly.

“Everything fine on Andoria?” Daniel asked, his right eyebrow raising slightly.

Chris slowly returned his sister’s embrace as he nodded. “Yes, I just wanted to see my family again.” he said, burrowing his nose in Dani’s hair as he had missed his siblings.

Then an older and accented woman’s voice asked “Sei esiliato da sola, figlio mio? Sei finalmente tornato a casa da noi?" at which point all of the people turned to face the figure who was now standing there in the doorway from the dining room, her once dark hair was now white with age and yet she stood proud as she refused to allow her age to force her to do otherwise as she looked at Chris with a firm hope and intent in those eyes of hers.

Dani let go of Chris as he stepped forward, nodding firmly as he said “Sì madre, sono a casa.”

At that point Magdalene Slayton, the mother of the Slayton children, held out her arms and welcomed her third oldest home after what felt like a lifetime away.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

A few hours later as the sun was setting, Chris was walking through around the grounds of his family’s home and enjoying the peace and quiet after having a great lunch with the family as his younger siblings were happy to see him back home once more and he got to watch one of Dani’s favorite things in the entire universe in the form of the Fifty Third Air Demonstration Group or the “Black Eagles” as they were better known as fly over the city as part of the celebrations to which he wondered how that was pulled off but he didn’t mind as it was something that he could enjoy with his favorite sister.

The fact that she managed to actually get to meet her idols later was also a highlight.

But being around so many people, especially those who he had known in what felt like was a different life became too much and thus when they got back to the compound he sought out the solitude which was an all too common thing especially in light of all the happiness especially when Gerron Mika, Daniel’s girlfriend, arrived from Bajor to spend her leave with him since his ship had been assigned to replace the Malinche as a sector patrol ship.

Chris was leaning against one of the older trees and closed his eyes tightly, trying to force the sounds of pain sticks pounding against metal to fade away when he heard a female voice behind him ask “Are you okay?” softly which made him turn to see that Dani was standing there, only a couple of feet behind him.

He nodded, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Dani’s eyes narrowed sharply as she knew better but chose to table that for the time being so instead she decided to try a different route, “So what did you think of Mika, AJ thinks that they’re going to be married before the eighties hit.”

Chris chuckled, “I’m happy for him, I remember how hard it was for him to meet people when we were younger. I mean Marc had Rachel before they broke up when he went to the academy.” he said while trying to smile.

Dani nodded quietly for a moment before adding “You know, maybe it’s time for you to try and find someone for your own, Chris?”

Chris was quiet for a moment before he shook his head slowly, “No Dani, monsters don’t get happy endings.” he said softly.

Dani reached over and grabbed her brother by the front of his shirt and made her face him. “What the hell makes you think that?” she asked.

Chris looked at Dani, unsure what to make of what she was trying to do before he gently extracted himself from her grasp. “Because I’m not the person that you grew up with, helped you with the bullies, put you on my shoulders so that you could watch the Black Eagles during that trip to Earth, or any of those things..” he started to say, the pain that he felt in his very being started to creep into his voice. “I lost him in those two years that I’ve lost of my life!”

Despite the fear that she was starting to feel at seeing her brother like this, a person that she had looked up to her entire life starting to become unraveled right before her, she also knew that she had to stand firm because he needed this. “How is my brother a monster?”

“Because in Rue Penthe, I was made to fight and to kill everyday that I was there and I became good at it, really good until it was second to breathing.” he said to her, a fire flashing in his eyes that in turn made him pull back from his sister. “I don’t have a soul anymore, Dani, and so many bad things have happened that I know that I’m not supposed to be happy so I’m simply facing the truth!”

Dani looked into his eyes with one set of determined clear green eyes with his fear and pain streaked matching clear green at which point she slowly brought up her left hand to touch his cheek which made him flinch like he’d been struck. “You’re my brother and you deserve nothing but the best which means that one day you’re going to meet a wonderful woman who’s finally going to light a fire in your heart that you’ve never felt before, fall hopelessly in love, and then you’re going to bring her here to meet us and she’ll see you for the good, honest man that you are and not this monster that you believe that you are.”

Chris was silent as he heard the pure conviction in her voice and in her gaze to which he simply nodded, “How will I know..an...and what if she breaks my heart?” he asked in a hesitant, quiet tone.

Dani smiled gently before saying in a reassuring tone “You’ll know because it’ll be like nothing you’ve ever felt before...and if she does break your heart then I’ll kill her, pure and simple. Siamo una famiglia, Christopher e la famiglia si guarda l'una per l'altra.”

Chris couldn’t help but smile at that as he slowly wrapped his arms around his sister and hugged her tightly and let himself break down for the first time in four years…
////////////////////////////

A short while later the two were walking down the path that lead to the creek that Marcus had first attempted to impress Rachel at years ago and stopped to look at it. “You remember that talk that we had after dad died?” he asked her.

Dani nodded, “Yeah, the one that ended with you running away to Andoria?”

Chris nodded, “I did a lot of thinking while I was living on Andoria and I think it’s time that I finally did something embrace my destiny.”

Dani nodded and then smiled, “So what are you going to do about it?” she asked, her smile only getting bigger as she knew the answer to come.

“I’m going to join the fleet, I think it’s time that I took a hold of my destiny.” he said, giving her the first real smile since he’d come home.

Dani returned that smile with one of her own. “I’ll be right behind you a few years later, big brother...we’ll set the entire pilot scene on FIRE!” she said with utmost confidence.
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OOC Notes:
"Non ci credo ..." means "I don't believe it..."

"fratellino" means "little brother"

"Sei esiliato da sola, figlio mio? Sei finalmente tornato a casa da noi?" means "Is you're self imposed exile over, my son? Have you finally come home to us?"

"Sì madre, sono a casa." means [b]"Yes mother, I'm home."[/b]

"Siamo una famiglia, Christopher e la famiglia si guarda l'una per l'altra." means "We're family, Christopher, and family watches out for each other."